Imperial Bedroom

Giving you more of what for
Always worked for me before
Now i'm a shabby doll
What's going on behind the green elevator door
With just a shabby doll

There's a hit man facing
A compromising situation
With just a shabby doll
And a very neat line in character assassination
She's just a shabby doll

She's just a shabby doll
She's putting him off and putting you on
She's just the shabby doll
You're swearing upon you know in your heart
She's gone you know in your heart
She's just a shabby doll

There's a girl in this dress
There's always a girl in distress
She's just a shabby doll
She's so sure she's self-possessed
Then again she's half undressed
She's just a shabby doll

The boy that i used to be
Showed no sign of sympathy
For just a shabby doll
I have betrayed you and me
And paid for my own bribery
With just a shabby doll

(chorus)

He's the tired toy that everyone enjoyed
He wants to be a fancy man but he's nothing but a nancy boy
He's all pride and no joy

And being what you might call a whore
Always worked for me before
Now i'm a shabby doll
Untie the gag the cat's out of the bag
But won't show his claws
He's just a shabby doll

She said you must be joking
Some things are left unspoken
You're just a shabby doll
He's lying limp and soaking
He was openly broken
By just a shabby doll

(chorus)

History repeats the old conceits
The glib replies the same defeats
Keep your finger on important issues
With crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues

I'm just the oily slick
On the windup world of the nervous tick
In a very fashionable hovel

I hang around dying to be tortured
You'll never be alone in the bone orchard
This battle with the bottle is nothing so novel

So in this almost empty gin palace
Through a two-way looking glass
You see your alice

You know she has no sense
For all your jealousy
In a sense she still smiles very sweetly

Charged with insults and flattery
Her body moves with malice
Do you have to be so cruel to be callous

And now you find you fit this identikit completely
You say you have no secrets
And then leave discreetly

I might make it california's fault
Be locked in geneva's deepest vault
Just like the canals of mars and the great barrier reef
I come to you beyond belief

My hands were clammy and cunning
She's been suitably stunning
But i know there's not a hope in hades
All the laddies cat call and wolf whistle
So-called gentlemen and ladies
Dog fight like rose and thistle

I've got a feeling
I'm going to get a lot of grief
Once this seemed so appealing
Now i am beyond belief

(repeat chorus)

Wait until the light goes out,
I don't want to be seen about,
Maybe we could find a place to go.
Find a crowded place where they don't care about your face,
Or if your name is even santa claus or joe.
I'll be right at home if they leave me alone.
That's why i only operate at night time.
Wait until the clock strikes ten,
It'll all start happening then.
Baby, just you wait and see.
We can have a little party, laugh and sing and everything,
I know you'll like it, just you wait and see.
Maybe first we'll dig a movie,
Then we'll hit they high spots feelin' groovy.
That's why i only operate at night time.
The right time is the night time.
I wait `til it's late and i can concentrate,
Making love by the light of the moon.
So when it's way past nine, get ready for a swinging time,
`cause i don't know where to draw the line.
We can have a little party, laugh and sing and everything,
I know you'll like it just you wait and see.
Maybe first we'll dig a movie,
Then we'll hit the high spots feelin' groovy.
That's why i only operate at night time.
Night time.
(repeat 5 more times and fade)

There's a young girl with her old man who's too sick to mention
She'll be turning twenty seven as she draws her widow's pension
But he couldn't catch a common cold he couldn't get arrested
Too terrified to answer back
Too tired to have resisted

Many hands make light work
Shorthand makes life easy
When he's out on night work
Make sure no one sees me
It all ends up in a slanging match with body talk and bruises
A change is better than a rest
Silly beggars can't be choosers

One of a thousand pities you can't categorize
There are ten commandments of love
When will you realise
There are ten commandments of love
I believe, i trust, i promise, i wish love's just a throwaway kiss
In this pidgin english

If you're so wise use your lips and your eyes
Take it to the bridge she sighs

You go cheep cheep cheep between bulleyes and bluster
Stiff as your poker face
Keener than mustard
From your own back yard to the land of exotica
From the truth society to neurotic erotica

Silence is golden
Money talks diamonds and ermine
There's a word in spanish
Italian and german
In sign language, morse code, semaphore and gibberish
Have you forgotten how to say it
In your pidgin english?

(chorus)

Ps i love you

I know the name on the tip of your tongue
And i know that accusing look
Everybody knows i've been so wrong
That's the problem and here's the hook

Tears before bedtime
There'll be trouble tonight
I don't want to talk about it anymore
I don't want to have another fight
I don't want to talk i don't want to fight
How wrong can i be before i am right

For the tears that you boo hoo hoo hoo
There can be no defence
You say you'll forgive and forget
But it's only a pretence

Either you can leave the past behind
Or give me something to disconnect my mind
I sleep with my fists clenched tight
When i don't lie awake all night
I guess time gave up the ghost too late
And the balance of our love
Very soon turns to hate

Darling your suspiciousness
Tortures me at night
But i can't excuse the cruel words
That i use whenever we fight

(chorus)

You turn to the sinister when you get the boot
Sliding down the banister in your sunday suit
Lying on a slag heap of blankets and magazines
She's only thirty-five going on seventeen
You'd better roll over and go to sleep if you don't come clean

And in every home there will be lots of time
I will be all yours you might have been admired
(and in every home there will be lots of time)
They say they're very sorry but you are not desired
Oh heaven preserve us
Oh heaven preserve us
Oh heaven preserve us
Because they don't deserve us

Holding your life in your hand
With an artificial limp wrist
And so a young blade becomes a has-been
Looking for a new twist

A year after the wedding he broke all their china plates
He's in prison now she's running with his mates
Sees him every sunday
And he asks her where she's been
She's only thirty-five going on seventeen
She's going to cop a packet if he ever finds her
In between the sheets

(chorus)

Everyone agreed that she looked delightful
Except for her sister, who was hateful and spiteful
Blushing bright red from her head to her feet
But rushing into her bridal suite

The imperial bedroom, the regal boudoir
This casual acquaintance led to an intimate bonsoir

Life turns out like a tv serial
A head full of daydreams, his hands full of material
She says it's nothing, he's messing up her hair
And still he looks so neat
Stepping into the bridal suite

The imperial bedroom, the regal boudoir
This casual acquaintance led to an intimate bonsoir

So the best man will do his best again
Now they're getting dressed again
Blushing bright red from her head to her feet
Sneaking out of the bridal suite

The imperial bedroom, the regal boudoir
This casual acquaintance led to an intimate bonsoir
We know who you're with and where you are
In the imperial bedroom, the regal boudoir
This casual acquaintance led to an intimate bonsoir
Two names under the register
In the imperial bedroom, the regal boudoir
This casual acquaintance led to an intimate bonsoir
Au revoir

Daddy's best girl in the world is not supposed to have a boyfriend
But she's never wanted at home
Other girls are allowed to wear their makeup
She sneaks out her lipstick powder and comb
She surrounds his name with hearts and flowers
Talks on the telephone for hours and hours
But with the bird in his hand
And two on a string
The words of love have an imitation ring

You little fool, you little fool
I suppose that your going to stay all night
You little fool
Don't look at me that way you know it isn't right
You little fool

They say no news is good news
The little girl wants information
Mother just gives her some pills to choose
And says go and use your imagination

Daddy's best girl in the world says just look what i have got
As she sits beside him on the high stool
With his arm around her neck snowball in one hand
And the other full of imitation jewels
She fingers a string of pearls
An imitation but he'll never know it
Imitation lashes flutter above
Looking for an imitation of love

You little fool
I suppose that your going to stay all night
You little fool
So don't look at me that way you know it isn't right
You little fool

I've been talking to the wall and it's been answering me
Oh darling how i miss you
I'm just the mere shadow of my former selfishness
I crave the silhouette of your kiss
With only the blue light of the tv on
Lip reading threats and false alarms
There's a boy somewhere holding hands with himself
And a girl in a window on the reeperbarn

Whenever i put my foot in my mouth and you begin to doubt
That it's you that i'm dreaming about
Do i have to draw you a diagram?
All i ever want is just to fall into your human hands

With the kings and queens of the dance hall craze
Checkmate in three moves in your heyday
But the girls don't listen to your line anymore
Now you're part of someone else

On the factory floor and you still say "wheres the action?"
Now you manufacture happiness
And get sold on the cheap for someone's satisfaction

(chorus)

All you toy soldiers and scaremongers
Are you living in this world sometimes i wonder
In between saying you've seen too much and saying you've seen it all before

Tighter and tighter i hold you tightly
You know i love you more than slightly
Although i've never said it like this before

(chorus)

so this is where he came to hide
When he ran from you
In a private detective's overcoat
And dirty dead man's shoes

The pretty things of knightsbridge
Lying for a minister of state
Is a far cry from the nod and wink
Here at traitor's gate

'cause the high heel he used to be has been ground down
And he listens for the footsteps that would follow him around

To murder my love is a crime
But will you still love
A man out of time

There's a tuppeny hapenny millionaire
Looking for a fourpenny one
With a tight grip on the short hairs
Of the public imagination

But for his private wife and kids somehow
Real life becomes a rumour
Days of dutch courage
Just three french letters and a german sense of humour

He's got a mind like a sewer and a heart like a fridge
He stands to be insulted and he pays for the privilege

(chorus)

The biggest wheels of industry
Retire sharp and short
And the after dinner overtures
Are nothing but an after thought
Somebody's creeping in the kitchen
There's a reputation to be made
Whose nerves are always on a knife's edge
Who's up late polishing the blade

Love is always scarpering or cowering or fawning
You drink yourself insensitive and hate yourself in the morning

(chorus)

Every night you'll find me in the only world i own.
It's a crowded place that's filled with people all alone.
It's a place that i could write a book about.
When they let you in, you'll find there's no way out.
There you don't get in, 'cause there's no way out
There's just no way out.
No way out when your in a world of broken hearts,
In a world of broken hearts,
Of broken hearts,
Of broken hearts.

Those who enter here are told to leave their dreams behind.
You may never get to sleep again, but you don't mind.
It's a place that i could write a book about.
When they let you in, you'll find there's no way out.
There you don't get in, 'cause there's no way out
There's just no way out.
No way out when your in a world of broken hearts,
In a world of broken hearts,
Of broken hearts,
Of broken hearts.

In a world of broken hearts,
In a world of broken hearts,
In a world of broken hearts,
Of broken hearts,
Of broken hearts.
(repeat and fade)

You say you don't desire me,
She's only a hired hand,
Now you are tired of me.
Expensive care is meaningless,
Feeling nothing and caring less.
Cut off at the pass,
She knows where you were headed,
She wants double-time or a temporary wedding.
And the lucky girl leads a life of leisure,
Though she? with forty-five years
For seconds of pleasure.
I thought i knew you too well,
Now i find the man is a mystery,
And the promises you made
Are really only ancient history.
Everyday goes by without a hitch,
You say the urge becomes an itch.
You say that i'm no go for you, that's rich,
Or am i being bitchy?
And the lucky girl leads a life of leisure,
Though she forty-five years
For seconds of pleasure.
And the hands on the clock move so precisley,
You say you only kissed her once or twice.
You didn't do it for love, you didn't even do it with stealth.
I can't help you now,
I can't help myself.
Commited to life and then commuted to the outskirts.
I was living for thirty minutes at a time
With a break in the middle for adverts.
You treat me like a piece of human furniture.
You say when? you sad soul,
If you can look all that you like,
But i won't let you touch and poke.
And the lucky girl leads a life of leisure,
Though she ? forty-five years
For seconds of pleasure.